Writer and Native David Treuer is a big [proponent](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/05/return-the-national-parks-to-the-tribes/618395/) of returning U.S. National Parks to Native Americans. His idea is to return the parks to a consortium of tribes to manage for everyone's use and benefit. He says: "As parks were being created, over 87 million acres of parkland were being set aside for Americans, Native Americans were being deprived of and we lost control of over 90 million acres." He believes they should get them back. Treuer also says that "[A]s the efforts to assimilate [Natives] largely failed and we remained, mostly, in our homelands, Americans have gradually assimilated to our cultures, our worldview, and our modes of connecting to nature. The parks [...] emphasize and prioritize a particular way of interacting with the land. In the nation’s mythic past, the wilderness may have been a dangerous environment, something to be tamed, plowed under, cut down. But that way of relating to the land is no longer in vogue. For many Americans, our wild spaces are a solace, a refuge—cathedrals indeed. America has succeeded in becoming more Indian over the past 245 years rather than the other way around." Logistically, this plan could be difficult. Treuer [maintains](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/should-native-americans-control-national-parks-examining-an-argument-for-reparations) that Native people have the experience necessary to maintain 20,000 trails, recreational areas, and wildlife: "What I propose is that there would be sort of covenants put in place that protects the parks and protect access to them. As to whether Native people are equipped, you know, we have, through long and difficult experience managing our own tribes by sort of fighting the United States government and trying to establish our own tribal governments, working with the United States to form our tribal governments, enduring the sort of paternalistic hand of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, we have, through long experience, developed the perfect skill set. There is no one better equipped to manage parks than tribes. We have the experience necessary." The return of the parks to Natives, in this view, is more than just for important and overdue reparations---it's for the good of everyone, going forward.

**If one truly cares about preserving nature, national parks should be returned to Native Americans for their influence is more beneficial to the environment** - Aside from the arguments that it is rightfully their land, we must remember the reason national parks were introduced in the first place: to protect and preserve areas of natural beauty. They were created out of care for the environment, and to stop these pristine natural areas from being industrialised or damaged in any way. - With these interests in mind, national parks should be returned to Native Americans on the grounds that the reason why people saw these areas as something worthy of preserving was due to indigenous stewardship. - Indigenous ethnobotany, science and thousands of years of knowledge about how to protect and preserve the environment are why those areas were so beautiful and pristine for thousands of years before colonialism, and their involvement is essential to the future preservation of the land. - In the creation of national parks, Native Americans were left out of the conversations, and stewards were removed from those spaces on the grounds that the land should be left alone of human influence. - However, as a result of this we find major issues arise which cause the destruction of those areas of natural beauty, both aesthetically, and physically, for example, overgrowth of underbrush and forest fires. - Native Americans belonged to these areas before anyone else, and are respectful of these spaces. Their practices are sustainable, future-minded and even beneficial to nature. - After an extensive study, the Cherokee were recently granted the ability to resume foraging sochan in Great Smoky Mountain National Park, because the way they were doing it was actually [better](https://www.theonefeather.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/GRSM-Sochan-Gathering-EA-20181107.pdf) for the environment. - The idea that there have been areas of untouched natural beauty in America that must be preserved from human influence by Natural Parks is at fault. The notion of 'wild spaces' is a [myth](https://www.pnas.org/content/118/17/e2023483118), and ignorant towards the thousands of years of work of Native Americans to protect and cultivate the land. - If their practices are sustainable, [humans don’t have to be removed](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/just-19-earth-s-land-still-wild-analysis-suggests) to save the environment. This notion is based on the practices of capitalism and colonisers but ignores the truth that indigenous people have been [managing their landscapes](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/humans-have-altered-north-america-s-ecosystems-more-melting-glaciers) successfully for millennia.